"The Next Volume" 1939 JAMES, Edward (INSCRIBED)
$1,250
JAMES, Edward
[89] pp.
The James Press
1939
This edition is limited to 412 copies this copy is number 411
11 1/4" x 7 3/4"
Inscribed for Meno and Marguerite from Edward with all his love
w/ decorations by Rex Whistler
A first edition of Edward James' privately-published collection of poems. The Next Volume is beautifully illustrated by Rex Whistler. Edith Olivier writes in her diary in 1932 - "Rex is making drawings for some poems by a Mr James - the best drawings I have seen of his in some ways. Such a sure touch. An amusing one of New York - skyscrapers towering over a park in which the trees look like cabbages. It has great beauty.". James halted the binding of the first edition because "of how awful that first poem [At the Grave of Shelley] was", meaning that there are likely far fewer than the stated 525 copies. A statement on the colophon notes that he also delayed the publication of the book until January 1933 'owing to the serious illness of the author's wife [Tilly Losch]'.